Swedish Army

The Swedish Army is the armed forces of Sweden, founded in 1521.

History
The Swedish army was founded in 1521 to replace feudal levies that the Kingdom of Sweden used to wage warfare. Their first wars were with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Tsardom of Russia, and during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) their army was modernized and drilled by the famous King Gustavus Adolphus. Swedish military might rose in the later half of the 17th century as they fought the Northern Wars with Denmark-Norway, Russia, and the United Provinces. The Swedish Army was made up of nearly 20,000 mercenaries as of 1700, when the Great Northern War began.

King Charles XII of Sweden invigorated the Swedish army in their war against Russia, Denmark-Norway, Poland-Lithuania, and their lickspittles such as Saxony and Courland. They dominated the Baltics until 1709, when their invasion of Ukraine was defeated at the Battle of Poltava. King Charles died in the siege of Fredrikshall in 1719 and Sweden surrendered to Russia in 1721.

Sweden remained neutral for most of the wars of the 18th century, but they became involved in the French Revolutionary Wars when they allied with Russia, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia against France in the Third Coalition of 1805. Their army was led by Sven Hogquist, whose force was destroyed in late June 1805 in the Battle of Magdeburg.

While the Swedish army fought France in Mecklenburg and Brandenburg in northern Germany, they also fought against their erstwhile Russian allies in the Finland War, during which Russia aimed to settle old scores by capturing Aabo and taking Finland from Swedish general Ane Topelius.

Sweden remained neutral after the Napoleonic Wars' end in 1815, not taking part in a war for the rest of their history. However, Sweden-Norway did send some troops to assist the Boer States during the Second Boer War of 1899-1902, taking part in the guerrilla warfare against the United Kingdom.

Sweden also sent peacekeeping forces to Afghanistan in 2001-2014 and took part in the bombing of Libya in Operation Freedom Falcon in 2011, but did not fight a war against other governments.